trollable. All that a governor
could do was to look upon the most popular man in the Assembly, as if
he were a minister of State, and govern in such a manner as to suit his
views. The expediency of erecting the Eastern Townships into a judicial
district had been represented to the Assembly at its previous session.
It was considered a denial of justice to require people situated as the
Eastern Township farmers were, in a new and rather far off country,
when the want of good roads is considered, to sue and be sued in the
Courts of Montreal, Three Rivers, or Quebec. But they stirred not. They
merely appointed a committee to draw up a statement of the receipts of
the provincial revenue of the Crown, and of the disbursements by the
Receiver General from the date of the constitution to 1819; and also a
statement of all the appropriations made by the legislature, and of the
amount paid upon each of them by the Receiver General, the balance to
be stated and the monies to be counted. There was evidently a suspicion
in the minds of some of the members of the Assembly that the National
Bank had been paying interest out of the new deposits and that the
managers were living in the same style of novelty. However that may
have been, the business of legislation was now concluded, and His Grace
the Duke of Richmond, Lennox and Aubigny, Governor-in-Chief of Canada,
and Captain General of British North America, came down to the
Legislative Chambers in State. He took his seat upon the throne
quickly. He seemed to speak to his attendants testily. He sent for the
Commons impatiently. And he looked sternly. Colonel Ready, as soon as
the Commons had appeared, handed His Excellency, who was not
particularly gracious, a paper to read. "Gentlemen of the Legislative
Council," were the first words uttered, and all eyes were upon the
Duke. "_You_ have not disappointed my hopes. I thank you for your
zeal and alacrity. Gentlemen of the Assembly:--It is with deep concern
that I cannot thank you in connection with the result of your labors
and of the principles upon which they rest. You proceeded to vote a
part of the sum required for the expenses of 1819, but the bill of
appropriation which you prepared was founded upon such principles that
it had been most constitutionally rejected by the Upper House, and so
the government has been left without the supplies necessary for the
support of the civil administration for the ensuing year,
notwithstanding the